Secret NDIS taskforce limited stakeholder consultation, FOI reveals

An FOI document shows the NDIS reform process was led by treasury, rushed from the start and was designed to keep sensitive options away from the sector it was reforming.

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A taskforce assembled to reduce NDIS spending deliberately limited stakeholder engagement amid fears sensitive reforms could leak, freedom of information documents have shown.  

As HSD reported in April, the taskforce was led by Treasury first assistant secretary Anthea Long.  

It was assembled in February, and while the reforms and purpose of the taskforce are largely redacted, the FOI document does show that it was established to prepare budget measures aimed at NDIS sustainability.  

Reporting was through Department of Health, Disability and Ageing secretary Blair Comley and health minister Mark Butler, with strong involvement from Treasury, Finance, Prime Minister and Cabinet, the NDIS and the Australian Government Actuary.  

The document shows how quickly the taskforce was established and how reforms were being rushed through to prepare for the May budget announcement.  

“Given timeframes I think we should get cracking,” Ms Long wrote in a 17 February email even before the terms of reference were established.  

The document shows the dedicated costing, modelling, legal, and implementation streams, and weekly engagement with ministerial offices and central agencies.  

However, what is particularly telling is the suggested engagement approach.  

“There is not sufficient time to run an ideas testing workshop,” they wrote.  

“It will be difficult to have meaningful engagement in the short timeframes, which will raise sensitivities with stakeholders.” 

They highlighted that an early workshop with larger numbers of participants risked the options under consideration becoming public.  

Instead, DoHDA recommended that the ministerial office test ideas with “critical friends” and build buy-in with key stakeholders ahead of the Budget announcement.  

“Political framing of sensitive reform options is best handled by the MO (ministerial office),” they wrote.  

When identifying stakeholders, they said they needed to target different expert and advocate groups, with only some small overlap.  

Experts could include a range of economists/academics and former senior public servants who would be suitable for testing ideas with in-confidence.  

Regarding advocates, “suggest stakeholders the MO/DHDA have established relationships with given sensitivity of reforms”, with some redacted examples.   

The approach sits in contrast to the government’s public position on consultation.  

Speaking on ABC AM last week, NDIS minister Senator Jenny McAllister said the government had referred its reform bill to a Senate committee “precisely because we wanted to hear from stakeholders”. 

“I’m really grateful for all of those stakeholders who have made a contribution to the committee, and I’m looking forward to the committee’s report next week,” she said.  

Mr Butler highlighted on the ABC’s Insiders program yesterday that most of the work to implement the NDIS plan doesn’t happen when the upcoming bill is passed, “but happens over coming months”. 

“And of course, we will do that in close consultation with the disability sector as well as with states,” he said.  

The states obviously weren’t among the trusted stakeholders consulted prior to the budget announcement, based on their submission to last week’s Senate inquiry examining the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026.  

The state ministers said they supported reform but warned the Commonwealth was moving too quickly and without sufficient consultation. 

“The Commonwealth is moving very rapidly to reform the NDIS,” the ministers wrote. 

“While elements of the proposed reforms have the potential to deliver improved outcomes, the Bill in its current form risks undermining the original intent of the NDIS,” they continued. 

Mr Butler was critical of the states’ submission. 

“I think there’s a bit of posturing going on through this process,” he said yesterday.  

“I think that submission was an extraordinary submission, given the clear commitments that premiers signed on to a few months ago, in exchange for which the Commonwealth has made available $25 billion in additional funding to hospitals.” 

He reiterated that the government will not let people with disability fall between the cracks.  

“We’re not going to make changes that leave people without supports. But I’m also not going to raise the white flag on those timeframes now. I want the disability ministers to get on with the job, with the Commonwealth, of designing those foundational supports,” he said.  

With the Senate report due tomorrow, Mr Butler is intent on pushing through on this timeline to get the bill through parliament by 30 June.  

But standing in his way could be an unlikely pairing of the Coalition and the Greens.  

In exchange for a six-month extension into the NDIS inquiry, the Greens have flagged they might give their support to a six-month extension of the capital gains tax inquiry.  

But Mr Butler warned of a six-month delay on NDIS reform.  

“Six months more of people receiving services that aren’t as good as they should be because a lot of the reforms that we’re putting in place are to improve the quality of supports and services, to improve arrangements around integrity and fighting fraud.” 

It would also mean billions more dollars in the budget.  

“It will run to billions and billions of dollars.  

“And I’ve not heard Angus Taylor make an argument why this inquiry has not been long enough in and of itself. He’s simply trying to use this as a pawn in a bigger chess game that he’s seeking to play about other areas of the Budget,” he said.  

The taskforce’s stated purpose remains redacted. What is visible is its architecture: Treasury-led, actuary-staffed, and oriented around budget preparation. 

Whether that amounts to disability reform will now have to be answered by the Senate.